Here we go...

Good luck!

1st break. I'm in 23rd place out of 715 left. In the second hand I got dealt KK. The night before, I had decided that if I got dealt that, I wasn't going to be too crazy with it. I wasn't going to let AA take me out in the first round.

I ignored my own advice, of course, and pushed pretty hard. Ended up getting a K on the turn. Guess what my opponent had? AA! That got me a good pot to start out with and my stack's been growing every since.

Also ignored my advice and got into a coin flip with me holding AK against QQ. I had him covered, but it was still a big pot. Got lucky with that one too, catching a K on the turn again

Oh man, I'm nervous.

My lucky cards have always been J9, no clue why, but I have yet to lose a hand when dealt a J9

2nd break. I'm now in 173rd place out of 650. The players are really aggressive, so it's expensive to see a flop. I saw a few, none really worked out. Tried a few plays that didn't work out either. At least I have more than the average stack...

Heh, I don't really have a lucky hand anymore. I think I've lost a big pot with nearly every combination in the deck

Oops, I missed that you were posting updates, I've been watching off and on (had it open the whole time).


I saw a few plays that as soon as you made them I saw they were going to end badly, overall you seem to be playing pretty well though.

Watch out for taking a stab at the pot and going into check/fold mode which it seemed like you did a couple of times. If I notice a player doing that I tend to roll over them pretty quickly.

Also, although I can't see the hands you're doing it with, watch your position, I've noticed you limping in UTG or UTG+1 (and making minimum raises from early position too).

Again, since I have very little information, ignore me if what I'm saying means nothing.

Beautiful play against "brob06" though on the hand with the paired Kings on the board.


I was sitting there screaming for you to put him all in there. even if you weren't on much of anything.

Okay gotta run to dinner, and head out for the night probably. Keep up the good work, so I can watch again tomorrow.

Heh, thanks. Actually, one of the reasons I was doing my stabs from early postion, then going into check/fold mode was to setup brob06. I've been wanting to check raise him all day long! I finally got my opportunity. I had AK in that hand

I'm actually having a tough time with him. He's got a pattern going, where he calls big bets hoping his opponent is bluffing (i.e. me). Then the moment I decide I've already spent too much, he makes a play back at me and I'm forced to fold. Every so often I work up enough moxie to fire the third shot, and it usually works. But I'm playing too scared to pull it off regularly.

Yeah, those early position limps probably weren't real smart. They were low pocket pairs that I didn't want to put too much money into. But I've noticed that if I limp, and then brob06 limps, it's rare to see a raise behind us. But you're right, it's a pretty weak play out of position.

3rd break. I'm now in 16th place out of 533 left. Hit some big hands, stole a few pots, and pretty much just kept bobbing and weaving. I've been real careful to stay out of difficult situations. Only about three more hours to go for day one!

4th break. I'm 22nd out of 384. Wasn't getting many hands, but I'm the chip leader at my table. It's been giving me some leeway to push back a little. I did make a couple of mistakes, but they weren't expensive. I've only gone to showdown with the worst hand twice, so I'm mostly getting good reads. I feel gooood.

Back to watching now.

Nice set of 6's on the flop!

Oh man, I got so lucky with that. I didn't want to call it, but they've been pushing me around for a while. I had to take a stand with something before my stack shrunk too much. But yeah, the poker gods were with me on that one.

Haha, well at least it was the right side of the coinflip to get involved with, he had to improve you didn't - and your improving sealed his fate.

That's actually the major thing I need to improve in my game, I need to be involved in more coinflips with the low pocket pair rather than the two over cards I seem to always find myself with.

Ugh.

You played well at least... Better to go out on a bad beat than by playing poorly... if that's any consolation.

Ugh, I feel sick. I'll get over it though. I went out in 257th place. It took just three hands to break me.

Hand #1: I had a little over $40k. Had top pair and a strait draw on the flop and bet pretty heavy. The turn brought an Ace and put three spades out there. I made too big of a bet and got re-raised all in. I had to fold that hand and was left with only $20k.

Hand #2: I'm now on tilt a little, not happy about losing that much. I call a smallish raise in the blinds with 56 and hit two pair on the flop. I get my opponent call in and he flips over Aces. I'm stoked that I'm going to crack Aces and get some of my money back. He gets a third Ace on the turn.

Hand #3: I'm now seriously on tilt, with only $8k left and blinds at 400/800. I get dealt AT. I know it's not a great hand, but with such a short stack I'm not sure what to do. I probably could have waited for a better spot, but someone raised and I pushed all-in. Another guy raises it, knocking the first guy out. He turns over AK and bounces me out.

Easy come, easy go. I had such high hopes for this game, making it that far and doing so well. But I suppose if I learned anything this week, it's that I can generate some quick cash if I focus. Maybe next time I'll be able to turn it into a big win.

I missed hand one, so I can't provide much opinion on that. But I believe you did correct on the other two hands. At the point you went out, average stack was a tad under $30k. You're way too low, and I think pushing with AT was probably the best you could have managed to get at that point. Just so happens another guy had you dominated.

All in all, you did put in a great showing. It's going to come down to luck now and then, and it just happened that a guy hit his two outer on you that second hand.

Hopefully, someone will actually hire me soon so I can start building a good bankroll to really get playing myself rather than the sporadic runs of poker I have now where I have to play for a bit, win a good amount - pay the rent with it and wait a while to get around to doing it again. Maybe, I'll join you for one in a couple of months!

P.S. Don't go looking at cards for a day or two.